Borussia Dortmund Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

[Jody]

First opportunity to post since the night before. I'm sat here at Düsseldorf airport waiting for my 7am flight still baffled at that team selection. We are playing one of the top 5 teams in Europe this season away from home yet go and pick a severely weakened side to face them. Why did we even bother with this comp if we were going to do this when the comp comes alive? How can you player stronger sides away from home in the group stages and the last ko round then play this team?

Thousands of THFC fans have paid a lot of money to be here, taken time off work and purchased tickets for the home game to then be mugged off like this! For those of you not out here I can assure you the bvb fans were as flabbergasted as we were with that team selection. Everyone I spoke to after the game were shaking their heads at our decision. Just thank our lucky stars it wasn't 5 or 6 like it should or could have been.

No doubt the armchair lot of you will point to our league position and quote the "the bigger picture" but how can getting dicked in Europe help our confidence with our upcoming fixtures? Yet again we throw away our cup spot, like we always do, as winning cups doesn't matter to our club. Getting/having a winning attitude comes from winning cups! MUFC under SAF won the FA, ECWC and LC before they won the league, CFC won the LC under JM before the title and MCFC won the FA before eventually winning the league!!!

Agree it would have been extremely frustrating to travel out there for that but earlier in the season we couldn't have been expecting to be in this position. The priority has changed now.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

Lets face it. It was a lose lose. Had we beaten Dortmund and lost to Villa. This place would be melting through the floor. It still may be. It's a tough choice and I would have liked to have been in this game for no other selfish reason than I had tickets To the home leg. But come May. If I am standing on the high road. With my son on my shoulders as the bus slowly winds its way past. I will not give a shit. But yes at the moment. It stinks.

Shotgun your shoulders if we do have a bus parade

 

[Nebby]

Well, we had better go and batter Villa, otherwise some people are going to look pretty stupid. Let's just hope they are prepared to play their part and simply roll over without putting up much of a fight. I sure do hope last night's result, couple with the loss against West Ham and the draw against Arsenal hasn't dented our confidence too much. Pressures on now and we can't afford to drop any points.

 

[Shadydan]

Why is it a given that we have to thrash Villa, surely if we just win the match that's enough?

 

[TheGreatOldOne]

Very, very difficult yesterday, and the first time this year we have been played off the park.

I don't think we have any chance of going through.

 

[JonnySpurs]

I've just seen Poch's comments from after the game. I turned off bang on the final whistle last night as I didn't care to listen to anymore of the bile that Savage and Darke were spilling from their mouths throughout the game. Lost count of the amount of garbage commentary we've been subjected to this season.

Anyway to use a slightly weird analogy, if Poch and I were in a relationship right now then he'd be in the dog house after last night! I still love the guy and he's been wonderful all season but I consider his team selection as ill advised. However, what has narked me more is the subsequent suggestion that he "picked the team to win the game" and has "no regrets". That my friend, is not cool and frankly is an insult to our intelligence as a fanbase. Like any smart man knows, be aware of when you just have to say sorry, even if you don't think you've done anything wrong!

I fully understand why he chose to rotate. It has become more apparent in recent weeks that players like Dier, Alli and Kane are all struggling and looked jaded. This was expected and is not a surprise but quite honestly, whilst the league does take priority I would like to think that a bit of a judgement call could be made to say lets play full strength against BD and then rotate for Villa and try and get the job done against the worst team in the league.

Had we been full strength and still got owned then fair enough, no complaints (apart from the officiating). We know we're not on Dortmund's level YET, they are only a few points behind Bayern in the league, who are arguably only behind Barca as one of the best teams in the world. What is frustrating is knowing that we're better than a 3-0 loss but not having the chance to show it.

Like with many relationships, Poch doesn't know it but he's getting the cold shoulder from me right now. I'll forgive him soon enough but he's gonna have to pull a couple of league wins out of the bag and attempt to redeem himself with a spirited fight back against Dortmund next week, even if we still lose, let's just get some respect back.

Lastly, the only other thing last night proved was how much of a mistake we made with not signing anyone in January. I love our squad but as we have done over many previous seasons, we've failed to take our opportunity to improve and strengthen in the winter window and it has proved costly in the cups, let's just hope it doesn't prove costly in the league as well.

 

[Shanks]

Problem I have about just signIng anyone, is that the club (or Poch) made it clear that there is any point just signing 'anyone' but he wants individuals that will improve the squad.

A tough one to be honest.

For me, it showed that we are seriously looking at a title tilt.

However, more worrying, it's our 3rd game on the bounce without a win.

This weekend is ridiculously important.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

Why is it a given that we have to thrash Villa, surely if we just win the match that's enough?

3-0 is the only result i'd take. This 27 goal difference is doing all sorts of horrible shit to my obsessive compulsive disorder.

That or a 7-0 loss

 

[RickyVilla]

I have a feeling the stadium might be a bit empty next Thursday. The people who only go when there is a massive game on will drop like the fair weather fans, most of them are.

 

[eViL]

Dortmund's goals were class. Yes, Poch got it wrong.. looks like he went for a 0-0 or 1-0 loss and it back-fired. No manager gets it right ALL THE TIME.

While I feel for the fans that travelled, the rest of you need to wind it in a bit.

Dier and Kane in particular have looked knackered the last couple of games; I personally hope they get rested the weekend too.

The worry was always going to be that tiredness would kick in at this point of the season and this where Poch needs time to build a squad of 25 that all have a 1st team role. At the moment, he's got 14-16 players that are 1st choice and a lot of those players are now stretched.

We need to guarantee Champion's League and have a go at the title still and I don't blame the club for making that a priority after assessing our current state of fitness, form and performance.

 

[DEFchenkOE]

Agree it would have been extremely frustrating to travel out there for that but earlier in the season we couldn't have been expecting to be in this position. The priority has changed now.

But did they not think in October and November time that we will have lots of games and something to play for in March/April? Maybe they wouldn't have expected us to be 2nd and so close to the top but at the least we would have been challenging for 4th. Yet there we were putting out strong teams in the group stages. As others mentioned playing Kane v Colchester in the fa cup. There have been plenty opportunities to rest players. Surely you play the season as a whole with an expectation/hope that you will have something to play for at the business end of the season so manage the squad accordingly. Not run players into the ground from Aug to Feb then start messing around with the team come March..3 big games and not a victory in sight

 

[1882andallthat]

Poch - Quite simply this team selection will only begin to look just about acceptable if after the Bournemouth game we are 6 points better off than we are before the Villa game !!!!!

 

[Gilzeanking]

Poch knows precise details of out player's fitness . They attach electrodes to the players in training ,heartrate..everything .

He's normally quite bullish in the Europa . Its my opinion that he's taken a gander at the figures and realised he has ,to rotate
for Dortmund or mebbe lose everything in a meltdown . There's no effective press with tired players and without an effective press we are in serious trouble , whoever we play .

 

[Nebby]

Why is it a given that we have to thrash Villa, surely if we just win the match that's enough?

True. Three points is the priority. But Leicester aren't all that far behind on goal difference, so we need to keep some distance between us. I also think a decent result and a clean sheet will help to restore confidence after a difficult two weeks. More importantly, a team with title ambitions should be completely ruthless and professional and be capable of putting a very poor Villa team to the sword. We need to start believing and playing like champions, even if we do end up falling short.

 

[TH1239]

Look, I've watched Dortmund plenty this season. They're a very good side, even without Gundogan playing. However, anyone who thinks the result wouldn't have been vastly different with Dier, Kane, Dembele, and Lamela starting is flat out wrong. We can't engage in high pressing without Dembele, Lamela, and Kane. Dier is the backbone of our midfield. Had Alli and Vertonghen both been available, and we played our true XI, it would have been a dead even match-up.

On a separate not, the one truly good thing about this whipping is that it wakes up supporters who think the squad is perfect as is and needs nothing in the summer but another young player from the Championship on a free. We are where we are because a core group of 12-13 players that carried us. With a ton of extra television money and CL football, we should be aiming to bring 3 players of absolute high level quality to round out the squad. We aren't a charity and just because you were an Academy product doesn't mean you get to keep your place no matter what indefinitely.

 

[Imnotacticalgenius]

Dortmund's goals were class. Yes, Poch got it wrong.. looks like he went for a 0-0 or 1-0 loss and it back-fired. No manager gets it right ALL THE TIME.

While I feel for the fans that travelled, the rest of you need to wind it in a bit.

Dier and Kane in particular have looked knackered the last couple of games; I personally hope they get rested the weekend too.

The worry was always going to be that tiredness would kick in at this point of the season and this where Poch needs time to build a squad of 25 that all have a 1st team role. At the moment, he's got 14-16 players that are 1st choice and a lot of those players are now stretched.

We need to guarantee Champion's League and have a go at the title still and I don't blame the club for making that a priority after assessing our current state of fitness, form and performance.

On top of what i have said earlier on, the match was also a point to show to the players that they are far from the "top" and the need to continually work harder to reach the pinnacle (In a way, they need to be continually humble and to work hard all the time). Those few that do not have the guts to work harder and improve will be "shown the door". I am also totally in agreement with this @eViL post. The goals from Dortmund are World Class from World Class players. Alright, the team did not performed up to par, but we cannot discount the genius those goals were. I hope Alli or others can learn a thing or 2 shown by Reus goals - Ghosting into good goal scoring positions and beating the offside trapped superbly.

 

[ajspurs]

Dortmund's goals were class. Yes, Poch got it wrong.. looks like he went for a 0-0 or 1-0 loss and it back-fired. No manager gets it right ALL THE TIME.

While I feel for the fans that travelled, the rest of you need to wind it in a bit.

Dier and Kane in particular have looked knackered the last couple of games; I personally hope they get rested the weekend too.

The worry was always going to be that tiredness would kick in at this point of the season and this where Poch needs time to build a squad of 25 that all have a 1st team role. At the moment, he's got 14-16 players that are 1st choice and a lot of those players are now stretched.

We need to guarantee Champion's League and have a go at the title still and I don't blame the club for making that a priority after assessing our current state of fitness, form and performance.

To be honest yes I wanted a stronger team last night but it's not even there where the frustration lies. If those players truly needed a rest of course it was right to not play them but for me the frustration comes from some of these players playing in games earlier in the season that they really shouldn't have been playing. I just think not necessarily yesterday but it's been poor management of the situation in the competition as a whole.

 

[max cady]

Poch is our manager and I will accept his reasoning for fielding the team last night. We do not manage a top tier club so we do not know what goes on and why managers make the calls they do. The game is done we lost let's move on to Villa which will be by no means easy.

 

[Tit&Ham]

If I was guessing I would think that Poch was taking Europa league seriously, but has had to adjuste lately due to fatigue on players.

And I think he and the rest believed that the team of players selected yesterday should be able to Get a decent result enabling us to go full strength at the Lane and maybe Get us through.

This failed and tough luck. But what would people on here say if we lost 3-0 with kane, dier and the rest in the team? Because that could alsi have happened. And then if we lost to Villa the game after?

It is a very hard task to rotate throughout the season, and Its Poch responsibilities to do just that. If he gets us top 4 - then he has succeeded big time. If we Get fifth and no titles he has not - but not failed either.

 

[dagraham]

I am actually quite angry with Poch here tonight, i understand why he has done this but its not like we are playing a too four side next in theleague?? And why has he played stronger teams earlier in the competition onky to rest half the team today? They were like a lamb to the slaughter tonight and we looked a bit foolish.. I am usually very pisitive but find it hard to pick any up from this. A little disrespecful to the fans who have bought tickets for both legs. I genuinely thought we could give them a game, very frustrating

This is the thing that concerns me. It's like Poch had no idea that running our key players into the ground earlier in the season would lead to fatigue. And if he didn't really trust certain squad players early on then why did we do nothing in Jan to freshen things up, even on a short term basis?

You have to pace your team to peak at the business end of the season. Fergie consistently talked about this during his time at Utd.

What's the point of playing your strongest teams early in the competition only to just fuck it off when you come up against the best team in it?